No, I am not going to travel between Europe and Asia or America like a madman or do some extreme round-the-world running. The aim of this end-of-May 2018 trip is to explore the area between Spain and Morocco and visit some of the Spanish exclaves and the Moroccan life “on the other side” of the fences. Thereby, it covers some very interesting flights between the two continents as well, including the shortest intercontinental scheduled flight by plane:
Travel Planning
This is the list of flights in detail:
| Date | Flight | from | to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.05.2018 | TP 589 | Cologne CGN | Lisbon LIS |
| TP 1432 | Lisbon LIS | Tangier TNG | |
| 24.05.2018 | AT 990 | Tangier TNG | Gibraltar GIB |
| 25.05.2018 | HTY 134 | Algeciras LEAG | Ceuta GECE |
| HTY 257 | Ceuta GECE | Malaga AGP | |
| 26.05.2018 | UX 5001 | Malaga AGP | Melilla MLN |
| IB 8271 | Melilla MLN | Malaga AGP | |
| 27.05.2018 | IB 8809 | Malaga AGP | Madrid MAD |
| IB 3132 | Madrid MAD | Dusseldorf DUS |
The first day of my trip will position me from home sweet home Cologne to Tangier, Morocco. The highlights of Day 2 will likely be to visit the Moroccan harbour city and its old town and then head over to Gibraltar. I will immediately cross border to reach Algeciras, from where I will start off to my first helicopter flights the next day, from Algeciras to Ceuta and from Ceuta to Malaga. From there, I will have a day-trip to Melilla (and thus visit the second Spanish exclave in Africa accessible by plane) before I head back with Iberia flights to Dusseldorf. The TAP flights are in fact operated by Portugalia and White Air, Royal Air Maroc is using RAM Express and the helicopter flights are booked on Spanish helicopter service Helity. Air Europa wetleases Swift Air for the leg to Melilla, while domestic Spanish flights are both operated by Air Nostrum. However, plane and cockpit of the flight from Melilla to Malaga were leased from Danish Air Transport.
In contrast to my first trip report overview following the Weird Al Yankovic 2018 Tour in Atlanta and neighboring cities, the table above does not cover my hotel bookings to make it more easy to read. Will of course report from my hotels in the following postings
Daily Postings
The following posts are envisaged:
- Day 1, 23rd May 2018: From Cologne to Tangier
- Day 2, 24rd May 2018: Tangier and the shortest scheduled intercontinental flight
- Day 3, 25th May 2018: The Helity adventure: Algeciras and Ceuta
- Day 4, 26th May 2018: Melilla
- Day 5, 27th May 2018: Back to Germany
Six Intercontinental Flight Weekend Gallery
Spin-Off Articles
There will be spin-off articles of this trip. Once they are linked below, they are finished:
- Flying with Helity Spanish Helictopter Airlines
- Review of Melilla Airport MLN
- Review of Malaga Airport AGP
- Hotel Review of Sercotel Malaga
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
Feature picture: Gibraltar airport view from Gibraltar Rock